Mr Slater has been in the thick of National Party ructions either side of the election. He was a key player in Judith Collins resignation as Justice Minister, while his communications with Mr Key last week forced the Prime Minister into an embarrassing backtrack in Parliament.

“Cameron Slater is a difficult personality, I think it’s probably not too fine a point to say he’s a sociopath,” Mr Little said.

“He’s not a person any responsible politician should be associated with, but the Prime Minister seems to have this unhealthy relationship.”

Perhaps Andrew Little should shut his gob….after all there was quite a considerable effort on my part to help several of his MPs across the line…and it was ok then for them to have an “unhealthy relationship” with me.

Police told theÂ Herald on SundayÂ in January they were investigating, and this week police said the investigation into the 57-year-old had ended.

“A thorough investigation was carried out and the man has now been issued with a formal warning,” a spokeswoman said. “We encourage families and community members that if they have concerns … to report it to police confident in the knowledge that their complaint will be investigated.” Laws yesterday denied receiving a formal warning from the police. Read more »

Thanks for all the questions. Â Some of them were really weird. Â Teach me for asking for them. Â I’ll see what Â I can do without it going off the rails. Â Some of the questions already have answers in the public domain, but obviously you don’t know the answer, so I’ve provided it again for my readers.

It’s only fair that if you’re going to ask me straight questions, I will give you straight answers. Â Don’t complain if you don’t like what you see.

Either way, hope you’ll enjoy the results!

Will you offer yourself as a parliamentary candidate (say) within the next 6 years?

No.

What were the biggest issues you faced towards the end of your time as an Editor of a MSM? Newspaper?

Being lied to by management. Â Not having the promised funds to make the changes they agreed I should make.

How long have you been married to SB?

22 years this May

When will there be a Whale paper and a Whale TV Channel?

Why no Whale Radio? Â Whale TV and a Whale Paper won’t happen, although I am working towards expanding into the delivery of even more news. Stay tuned.

Do you think you could beat Chuck Norris at arm wrestling?

One of the skills I have is to know how to pick a fight I can win. Â And that’s not one I’d pick. Â Read more »

Police are investigating former Whanganui mayor Michael Laws after an allegation of child assault was made against him.

Laws, a former RadioLive talkback host and current Whanganui District Health Board member, was reported to police after allegedly smacking one of his children.

The incident allegedly happened at Whanganui Hospital last year. Laws, 56, was there with his three youngest children – Lucy, 9, Zoe, 7, and Theo, 5 – to visit their mother, Laws’ former partner Leonie Brookhammer, who suffered a stroke in August.

TheÂ Herald on SundayÂ understands the alleged smack was witnessed by a nurse in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation ward. She reported it to the DHB and complained to police.

TheÂ Herald on SundayÂ asked police whether Laws was under investigation for allegedly hitting a child.

A spokesman replied by email saying: “Police can confirm they are investigating a child assault complaint made against a 56-year-old Whanganui man.

“As this matter is under investigation we are not prepared to discuss any further details.”

Laws yesterday said: “I have no idea what you are talking about, and my private life is none of your business.”

That’s all Colin wanted for a perpetual reason to have his election platform perpetually in the news: Â Michael Laws as a poster boy for his pro-Smacking campaign.

Michael says he want’s more exposure for this views. Â Let’s help him out. Â Here’s a little Facebook stoush he’s been in just recently.

08/12/2013 01:17
Kirsten Moffitt
Hi
I am a mum of a child with Smith Magenis Syndrome and your comments about DS are so ignorant. My son, like many children with DS, are thriving. It is amazing what early intervention can achieve. There are kids with DS getting their driver licences and being accepted into US universities without any quotas. My son is loved by his classmates at 6 years old and their parents often say to me how he enriches the class. Genetic testing should be available but I’m not sure people in your position should promote it. Cost to the health system? Let’s test unborn children for the cancer gene then and abort them too. What is the point of spending so much money on a kid that will just die? How does that feel. Maybe think before you put a knife in other parents heart. Kirsten

via White Ribbon

08/12/2013 01:21
Michael Laws
Seriously YOU’RE ignorant.
No-one wants a Downs Syndrome kid – 9 out of 10 women understandably abort if there’s the risk, and good on them.
Zealots like you want decent people to share your experience. Sorry, we don’t want to. Thank God we have the test & that the vast majority of women make the choice. Â Read more »

As someone whoâ€™s sat in a talkback studio, waiting for the lights to blink to indicate a caller wants to fill a few minutes with something other than my increasingly desperate blathering, I know exactly what itâ€™s like to be Willie Jackson or John Tamihere. They, at least, have one another to talk to if those lights steadfastly refuse to illuminate. When youâ€™re in the studio on your own, the phrase â€śdead airâ€ť seems palpably real. You stare at the microphone that stares back, sightlessly accusing you of not being interesting enough to provoke Fred in Takapuna to press a few digits on his phone rather than jump online and comment on that damned upstart Slaterâ€™s blog.

Youâ€™re constantly walking a fine line between stirring up the audience sufficiently to get prompt them to call, and not making an ass of yourself by saying something clearly calculated just to cause outrage, though increasingly â€“ and especially on Radio Live â€“ the latter tactic seems to be not just accepted but encouraged. How else to explain hour after hour, day after day, of Michael Lawsâ€™ entirely predictable and by now well canvassed opinions that the poor, the infirm, the mentally fragile and of course â€śfat brown slugsâ€ť are responsible for any plight in which they may find themselves?

Anyway, back to â€śWillie and JTâ€ť, as they seem to want to be known. I donâ€™t believe their now infamous interview with the victim of â€śRoast Bustersâ€ť was a premeditated attempt at attracting attention to their show â€“ though goodness knows they and everyone else could do with some, as their lacklustre ratings clearly illustrate â€“ which only makes what transpired worse. Â Read more »

Michael Laws points out that both the Maori party and the Green party, via Tariana Turia and Metiria Turei seem to be opposing Paula Bennett’s welfare reforms against abusers by saying that these new rules disadvantage Maori.

Sadly, but unsurprisingly, it is two Maori women who are leading the resistance to Bennett’s overdue toughness – associate health minister Tariana Turia and Greens co-leader Metiria Turei. Their argument is that Maori parents will unduly suffer and Turei raises the additional spectre of Aboriginal adoption. In fact, Turei goes further than that. More Maori parents abuse their kids because they are poor, she contends. If we removed “poverty”, she contends, “we’d remove a huge stressor on families that is connected to increased rates of child maltreatment and neglect”.

Yep, if you’re on welfare – or poorly paid – then abusing your kids is a natural response.Â Read more »

One ofÂ the great dichotomies of democracy is that we don’t trust those that we elect to lead us. This does not stop us getting very passionate and involved every electoral cycle. We have one of the highest electoral turnouts in the Western world.

The same point might be made of the relationship between the New Zealand news media and the public. We are avid consumers of news – we just don’t trust the people charged with managing that information.

There’s good reason for this. Politicians have acquired an unenviable reputation for promising sunshine and delivering rain. Journalists, for reporting the rain as snow. Charged with delivering the truth, they deliver their own version. It’s the final scene of Orwell’s Animal Farm made post-modern.

The best example of this is the parliamentary press gallery – a gaggle of competing egos, and any number suffering a God complex. TV3’s Patrick Gower was a perfect example last week, claiming that his job “is to hold the Government accountable . . . we’re the eyes and ears of the public”.

No, it isn’t. And no, he’s not. His job is not to act as judge and jury – it is to relay the facts and let us make up our own minds. That’s the fatal misstep that so many journalists make: they really do believe that they’re our moral arbiters and secular priests.

The problem is that many news rooms are trying to achieve an outcome. Â Let’s “get him”, let’s “tell this story”, let’s “pay him/her back” for some transgression.